Walker Buehler reacts to his bullpen demotion
NEW YORK - The Red Sox and Walker Buehler haven't been able to figure things out, so they are setting on a new course. The starter is becoming a reliever.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora announced before Friday night's game against the Yankees that Buehler would be pitching out of the bullpen regularly for the first time in the 31-year-old's career.
This comes after Buehler landed with a 5.40 ERA in his 22 starts this season, with his latest outing lasting just four innings.
"Disappointed," Buehler said when asked about his reaction to the news. "It’s the first time in my career I have been in a situation like that. At the end of the day the organization, and to a lesser extent myself, think it’s probably the right thing for our group and gives me an opportunity to kind of reset in some ways. I think in terms of this year’s team it’s the right thing to do. For me, it’s a situation I have tried to avoid my whole life. But the way this season and last season has gone for me it’s definitely understandable and it’s something I’m going to try and embrace for the last couple of months."
The most recent time Buehler pitched out of the bullpen came when he closed out the 2024 World Series by pitching the ninth inning in Game 5 against the Yankees. Before that, his experience as a reliever came via eight regular-season relief stints in 2017, and one more in 2018.
The hope for the team and the pitcher is that Buehler's stuff takes a leap up with shorter outings, although the righty admitted that he doesn't really know what to expect.
"There is some potential that the stuff ticks up and my arm learns that I can throw hard again, I pair down the pitches and I made on of them better because I threw a lot more," he said. "Sure, there are opportunities like that. But I have only been a certain pitcher one way in this league. I don’t think it will help my starting career, but at the end of the day it’s going to help my team and hopefully I can be some sort of valuable piece back there and pitch later in games as we go on and all that good stuff. I think for now the offseason is going to be based around getting back to who I am as a starting pitcher. But the next couple of months will be about trying to help our team win.
"It’s hard to say these two are the winners when they all have kind of sucked this year."
Cora didn't identify who would be taking Buehler's start Monday in Baltimore, although Kyle Harrison would seem to be a strong candidate. Peyton Tolle also represents an intriguing option, particularly after his dominant outing for Worcester Friday night (5 IP, R, H, 9 K).